Officials from the City of New Westminster had a heart-to-heart chat with the province's transportation minister about the Pattullo Bridge this week.
Several city officials met with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom at his Vancouver office Tuesday.
"We were going over the troubles and why we have to be more involved in it," said Mayor Wayne Wright. "We need to have a plan and the funding to do it properly."
TransLink has held public consultation meetings about its plans to build a six-lane replacement Pattullo Bridge near the existing bridge; the City of New Westminster has sought input about the Pattullo Bridge as part of its master transportation planning exercises.
Wright, along with city administrator Paul Daminato, engineering director Jim Lowrie and councillors Jonathan Cote, Jaimie McEvoy and Chuck Puchmayr, met with Lekstrom to have a "frank discussion" about the bridge. They stressed the need for more consultation about the fate of the Pattullo Bridge.
"It was very well received," Wright said of the city's message. "I think he has heard it now directly from us. He was as concerned as he should be."
Wright said city officials stressed that the estimated cost of $1 billion to build a new six-lane Pattullo Bridge shouldn't be spent on a project that won't improve the region's transportation network. He said the bridge was originally built to serve two communities - the then rural community of Surrey and the commercial hub of New Westminster.
"That is no longer the case."
